China appears set to snub Canadian PM Justin Trudeau until Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou is released, following his plea for Michael Spavor and Michael Hovrig

China said that Canada should take the “entire responsibility” for a spiralling diplomatic row on Thursday, and appeared to imply that only the release of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou – who is being held by Canadian authorities ahead of possible extradition to the US – could normalise relations.

The remarks came after Ottawa said on Wednesday that Beijing had spurned a request by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in January for a call with Premier Li Keqiang to “personally advocate” for the immediate release of two Canadians being held by Beijing on spying charges, and for clemency in the case of another citizen sentenced to death for drug trafficking.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang, when asked on Thursday by CBC whether diplomatic relations between the countries were frozen, said: "The current setback China-Canada relations face are entirely caused by the Canadian side itself, and the responsibility lies entirely with Canada, too.

"We hope that Canada will take seriously our severe concerns and immediately release Ms Meng Wanzhou, and actively take substantial measures to push China-Canada relations back on track as soon as possible."

Relations between the two countries have deteriorated since December when police in Vancouver detained Meng on a US arrest warrant, with the US saying she had committed fraud connected to an alleged breach by Huawei of US sanctions on Iran.

Days later China arrested two Canadians – former diplomat Michael Kovrig and businessman Michael Spavor – in what is widely seen as a tit-for-tat move. Geng said on Thursday he had not heard of the approach.